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Sunday, June 21, 2009

The WHY of creation Part 2 / The Invisible God in the body of Christ

In part 1 of The Why of Creation / The Invisible Made Visible I proved, I hope, that God the Father is an invisible being for the simple reason that He is not corporeal, He does not have a body. The word CORPOREAL is defined as follows: [L. corporeus, fr. corpus body.] Having a body; consisting of, or pertaining to, a material body or substance; material; -- opposed to spiritual or immaterial. Immaterialis defined as: Not consisting of matter; incorporeal; spiritual; disembodied. Although secular dictionaries define ‘Corporeal’ as ‘not spiritual’, and ‘Immaterial’ as ‘spiritual’, biblically speaking this is not quite correct. It is possible to be corporeal, and spiritual at the same time. The correct word to use for an antonym of the word Corporeal is the word SPIRIT not spiritual. Spirit beings such as angels are not corporeal, the bible tells us that God is a Spirit and therefore He is not corporeal, and not being corporeal He is invisible, much as angels are invisible.

Revelation 3:14And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

The above scriptures tell us that not only were all things created by God, and not only were they created for Him; creation itself begins with the creation of Jesus Christ. The very purpose for which everything was created was for the purpose of the creation of Jesus, who is God in corporeal form. Having understood that God the Father is not a corporeal being but rather an invisible and immaterial being, we understand that all creation was created by God with the express purpose of replicating himself in corporeal form. God is a mind, He is intelligence, He is energy that is immaterial and in order to make Himself visible and material He had to make for Himself a body. Hebrews 10:5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. The very intent and purpose for which creation was started by God was to prepare for Himself a body to dwell in, the significance of corporeal existence will be explored in part 3 of this series as to why God wanted to exist corporeally not just as immaterial spirit. God’s body however does not consist of just the one body possessed by the man Jesus Christ who came to Earth about 2000 years ago, died on the cross and arose from the dead three days later. Jesus now dwells in an immortal body and is the living God in corporeal form. Jesus Christ is both eternal and has a beginning in time, this seeming paradox can be thus understood: The body in which Jesus Christ dwells was prepared for him and given to him after his resurrection from the dead. As the first begotten from the dead He is the very first person in the universe to inhabit an immortal body composed of some unknown material similar to our flesh yet not corruptible and also with very different properties, for instance this body is not subject to the laws of physics. Revelation 1:5And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the firstbegotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. ..

So how is it possible that Jesus Christ is both eternal and has a beginning in time? To understand that we need to understand who is Jesus Christ? The bible calls Jesus Christ the Word of God but who is the Word of God? John 1:1 tells us plainly that the Word of God is God. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Who then is Jesus? He is God. How then can he have a beginning? Of course the eternal God, the great I Am, the one who exists from everlasting to everlasting does not have a beginning or an ending; however, the body that He now inhabits certainly did have a beginning. So if we can understand that when the bible refers to Jesus, who is the eternal God, as the ‘beginning of the creation of God’ it is referring to His body not his person, then the seeming paradox of Jesus being eternal and also having a beginning can be easily resolved. So God the Father, the immaterial, invisible being that is pure energy chose to build Himself a house that we know as the body, and in this body he replicated his very own person and character, filled the body with all of His Spirit, all of His Mind, all of His Intelligence, all of His Power, all of His personality, all of His character and the being that was created as a result of this process was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godheadbodily.

As discussed in part 1, one of the purposes of material creation is to make the invisible God visible through His creation that reveals to us various facets of His character, of His person. But the first and foremost purpose of creation was for God to not only make Himself fully visible through His creation but by taking on corporeal form Himself, for God to begin to exist in bodily form which finally happened about 2000 years ago. All the previous ages of creation have driven the universe towards this very goal; for God to become man, for spirit to become flesh, but why? Does it not seem that this is going backwards, should man not strive to become spirit or non – corporeal, existing only as pure energy, a goal that new agers so ardently desire? Yet God seems to be doing the opposite, why? Those of us who know our God are keenly aware that everything He does is perfect, not only perfectly planned but also perfectly executed. Therefore the reasons for the infinite God to put on a seemingly finite form must have been truly mind boggling and that they are; to understand the reasons why, it is necessary to understand the role of the body in the experiencing of life. I will explore this role of the body fully in part 3 but now it will suffice to say that it is really not possible to experience life without a body, this is true just as much for God as it is for man, or the devil for that matter. The ultimate purpose for all creation is for God to derive pleasure from his creation, the question is how does He gain this pleasure, as a Spirit, immaterial, invisible being or as a corporeal, material being?

Revelation 4:11Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

1 comment:

In Hebrews 10:5 the body prepared for him was the body of Christ,Eph 1:4. That is the temple being formed for God to dwell in,with of course the author and finisher of our faith,Jesus Christ, as the head. Sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ is once for all,Hebrews 10:11&14. Corporately the body of Christ is one with that sacrifice,most especially as a part of his body, the sin sacrifice,Hebrews 13:10-14. See also John 6:48-58. And of course 666 in the new Testament. Romans 6:6.